An instance of such usefulness arose soon after the materials arrived at the Library – when Colin Matthews and myself (as members of the Archive’s Editorial Board) were contacted by Testament Records in connection with their plans for a CD release of recordings relating to Cooke’s work on the draft of Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony.

Testament’s intention was to produce a 3-CD set presenting the two earliest stages in Cooke’s creation of a performable edition: the famous 1960 lecture-demonstration that was broadcast on the Third Programme as part of the BBC’s Mahler centenary celebrations; and the 1964 premiere (at the Proms) of the first full-length version of his score.

Cooke's radio script on Mahler, December 1960; CUL: Deryck Cooke Archive (yet unclassmarked)

To hear that these previously unpublished recordings were being prepared for commercial release was exciting news. The 1960 programme is a classic of its kind – with Cooke introducing the largely unknown music by means of examples played at the piano, and then explaining his work on the draft score with extracts performed by a live orchestra. (A page of his actual script can be seen to the right).

What is more, the two orchestral performances together provide a fascinating insight into how musicians began to make sense of a large-scale work which in essence was half a century old, but for which no performing tradition existed.

With Colin Matthews charged with the task of producing the booklet note for this recording, work here at the University Library focused on the provision of images. Cooke’s partner Hazel Hyde (also an Editorial Board member) had sent off a portrait that could be used for the front cover; after negotiating various legal obstacles the Archive was able to release a photograph of conductor Berthold
Goldschmidt that was one of several snaps known to have been taken on the day of the Proms premiere, 13 August 1964. In addition, with the help of John F. Berky, President of the newly reconstituted Bruckner Society of America, and veteran Mahlerian Jerry Bruck of New York, we were able to source a legally usable image of the Society’s Mahler Medal of Honor – which had been presented to Cooke by Dika Newlin on the same occasion.

Cooke: 'Mahler - a reconstruction of the tenth symphony', in Radiotimes, 15 December 1960, p. 20

Another task was to scrutinise several introductory and explanatory articles that Cooke had written at the time of the broadcasts – in order to make sure that the terms in which the various items would now be described did not depart too far from those originally used. For example, Cooke was adamant that he was not producing a completion of the unfinished work, but rather providing a performing version of the draft: for the CDs’ labelling or packaging to give the impression of a ‘Cooke completion’ or ‘Cooke realisation’ would obviously be inauthentic as well as misleading. (Incidentally, Cooke tended to preserve his own articles not as typescripts or carbons, but as isolated pages torn out of the printed publication: a scan of a torn-out copy of the 1960 Radio Times article can be seen to the left.)

Concerning the recordings themselves, it was revealed that Testament had obtained various tapes of the broadcasts from a number of collectors as well as the BBC – and, upon examination, a mystery emerged: in one of the tapes from 1960 the introductions to the concluding orchestral run-through of movements and sections were delivered by Cooke himself, speaking in a concert-hall acoustic; in another they were spoken by an announcer in a studio!

The mystery was not insoluble, however. Since the original broadcast also survives in off-air recordings made by enthusiasts at the time, it is evident that the ‘Cooke-only’ tape is the earlier: one imagines that the ‘studio announcer’ version must have been produced by the BBC at a later stage – presumably to create something that could be re-broadcast as a free-standing musical item separate from Cooke’s opening 40-minute lecture. The fact that no reference to any such re-broadcast has been found may seem strange, but with a little thought it too can be explained: following the original December 1960 programme, Alma Mahler withdrew the permission she had previously given to the BBC, and forbade all further broadcasts of the Tenth. As a result, one surmises, the re-edited tape was never used: by the time Mrs Mahler rescinded her ban in 1963, things had moved on – with Cooke having prepared a new edition that played continuously, without the gaps that he had modestly left in the 1960 score.

All in all, these issues (and others!) made this a fairly demanding project that extended over several weeks – with every member of the Editorial Board putting in time and effort, and Stewart Brown, head of Testament Records, showing a distinctly un-commercial commitment to getting everything right from every perspective. When the discs were finally released, early in 2011, the finished product looked truly splendid! (for an image of the cover of the CD see http://www.testament.co.uk/media/mediaimages/1400/SBT1457.pdf). And it was good to see the applausive reviews that appeared in such publications as The Gramophone and The Guardian.

'Historic' category, Gramophone Music Recording Awards for Mahler 10th Symphone, 2011

The most gratifying development, however, only occurred months later: in September it was announced that the release had been short-listed for the Historic category of the 2011 Gramophone Classical Music Awards. And eventually – after two months of waiting! – came the news that the discs had actually won, and that Colin Matthews would be present at the ceremony to collect the award on behalf of Stewart Brown (this has been captured, and is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx-kdzQ4bbs).

I don’t think it is out of place for me to say how encouraging it is to find that the Archive’s first substantial engagement with the outside world resulted in the awarding of a coveted prize. I think a hearty ‘Well done!’ is in order for all concerned.

MD

RISM Sigla Catalogue - screen shot ; see http://www.rism.info/en/community/development/rism-sigla-catalogue.html

The RISM library sigla are now searchable on the RISM website. A new database was developed for this purpose and it supersedes the previous PDF publications. The initial inventory consists of 7,080 library sigla. The database is updated monthly. The search results lead users to individual entries in which the usual information can be found (such as institution name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, website) in addition to, if possible, a Google map with the location of the institution pinpointed. All institutions with holdings in the RISM online catalog are marked with a star on the results list. By clicking through to the record, you can jump directly to the online catalog to view the titles from that institution.

The meaning of this last offer (of clicking through to the records of the institution) is a bit ambiguous. In fact it only clicks through to the database of ca. 1600-1800 manuscripts (RISM Series AII). No Cambridge manuscripts have yet been loaded onto that database. However the following Cambridge manuscripts are now entered on the RISM (UK) database http://www.rism.org.uk/ (but not on the main RISM database).

GB Cjc = Cambridge (Great Britain), St John’s College Library           1603 sources
GB Cmc = Cambridge (Great Britain), Magdalene College Library     89 sources
GB Cp = Cambridge (Great Britain), Peterhouse Library                     485 sources
GB Cpc = Cambridge (Great Britain), Pembroke College Library        105 sources
GB Cu = Cambridge (Great Britain), Cambridge University Library   1771 sources

The manuscripts in the College libraries are only available on the RISM(UK) database.

All the University Library entries, including 3953 entries for pre-1600 and post-1800 manuscripts, are also on Newton and Library Search. There are 5724 entries for music manuscripts in the UL, and they are also available on COPAC and OCLC First Search [access via IP recognition/subscription].

Nearly 5000 entries for manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum Library are currently only available on Newton and Library Search.

The largest collection of manuscripts not included in any of the above are those in the library of King’s College, which are not yet catalogued online. These (and all ascribed Cambrdige manuscripts) are included in the photocopy catalogue of the original 1960′s RISM entries: Source inventory of manuscripts of attributed music up to 1800 in Cambridge [University and college] libraries / compiled by R.M. Andrewes (Cambridge, 1969), on the shelves in the Anderson Room at MRR.31.G58. This catalogue does not include anonymous pieces.

RM

Hadley's letters to Ursula Grotrian. By permission of the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge

Mrs Watson’s connection with Hadley dated from her attendance at his musical appreciation classes whilst a student at the Royal College of Music in the mid-1930s. In early April 1936 it seems that she wrote to Hadley, asking him to recommend some music for her forthcoming wedding. In the first of the five letters we see Hadley’s response: that he might, if she liked, “try to knock off something if [she] would choose [him] some suitable words”. Grotrian promptly chose verses from the Song of Songs (Hadley thanked her for reminding him of it – “I had forgotten its strangely moving beauty”) and within a week Hadley had composed an anthem, “My beloved spake”, and despatched a manuscript of the new work with a second letter to Grotrian.

Hadley asks Grotrian to alter the score. By permission of the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge

Ursula Grotrian was evidently delighted with the anthem, which became affectionately known between herself and Hadley as “Spook”. In 1986 (twelve years after Hadley’s death) she and her husband Martin invited the college choir to their home in Great Chishill, to perform it on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary. It remains one of Hadley’s best known and most performed compositions.

Just a few short letters provide a fascinating insight into the genesis of an important work and the mind of its composer. Similarly, among the papers of Wood and Shaw, which are by no means large collections, there is much of interest (for example, manuscript drafts and sketches of later published works). One wonders how many similarly small archival collections are waiting in the cupboards or store rooms of libraries and archives throughout the land, with important stories to tell? Very many, is likely to be the answer. A sad thought perhaps, but their rediscovery is an exciting prospect.

A recording of “My beloved spake” can be heard on the website of the Winchester College Chapel Choir. Enquiries about the Wood, Shaw or Hadley collections should be directed to the College Librarian, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Jenny Sargent
Assistant Librarian
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

An earlier MusiCB3 blogpost about musical anniversaries prompted me to think about which anniversaries I would celebrate / commemorate this year. One immediately sprang to mind: the 150th anniversary of the birth of Delius on January 29th. The reason that I had been thinking of Delius was because of the death towards the end of 2011 of the film director, Ken Russell. Russell, a former dancer and photographer, had a particular passion for musical subjects. His work on the BBC arts strands Monitor and Omnibus would propel him to fame with two notable docu-dramas on Elgar and Delius (Song of summer (see clip on YouTube above)).

Song of summer, which was based on Eric Fenby‘s Delius as I knew him, follows Delius through the last five years of his life, as Fenby becomes Delius’ amanuensis, enabling the paralysed and blind composer to unlock the music that is inside him. Fenby worked closely with Russell on Song of summer, so although there is a certain amount of license and dramatisation it remains fairly faithful to Fenby’s memory and to the spirit of that time.

The period leading up to Delius’ association with Fenby had been a difficult one for the composer. From 1916 onwards Delius had become progressively frailer, and by the 1920s needed help from Percy Grainger and Peter Warlock to complete and copy the score of Hassan.

Grez-sur-Loing, taken from http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Vieux_pont_de_Grez-sur-Loing.jpg under Creative Commons 3.0 licence, taken by Kurillos77

Fenby initially wrote a fan letter to Delius; and after reading about the composer’s plight became obsessed with a desire to help him. He writes in his biographical work “…..the real tragedy of it all, or so it seemed to me, was to hear that the composer was worried and unhappy because it was physically impossible for him to continue and finish his life’s work….He could bear with his misfortunes if only he could finish these scores.” Fenby wrote once more to Delius offering any help he could give. There was a swift reply “I am greatly touched by your kind and sympathetic letter and I should love to accept your offer.” So began a relationship that would continue until Delius’ death. Fenby settled into Delius’ home in Grez-sur-Loing, 45 miles south of Paris, and set to work.

It wasn’t an easy task - at their first attempt to get notes down on paper, Delius droned out a tune on one note, much to Fenby’s horror. They eventually developed a method of dictation in which Delius would describe his music as though looking at a score, Fenby would then write it down and play with Delius suggesting corrections as necessary. It was a difficult and time-consuming way of working but resulted in the completion of  major works including A song of summer, Songs of farewell, and the third violin sonata.

The UL has many first editions of Delius works including A song of summer and Songs of farewell (both published by Winthrop Rogers in 1931), and the 3rd violin sonata phrased and edited by May Harrison (the dedicatee) and Fenby. Sadly we don’t have any Delius manuscripts, although we do have an arrangement of the Serenade from Hassan in the Peter Tranchell Archive – probably arranged by Tranchell himself. We also have some much later correspondence from Eric Fenby in the William Alwyn Archive, although there are few details of his time with Delius. 

While writing this post I was chatting to a colleague, who commented that with modern technology, life for Delius would have been very different. An insight into this is provided by some intriguing research at the University of Plymouth which demonstrates what can now be achieved without an amanuensis – as in the YouTube video above of “Guy plays piano with his brain”. However long before technology was able to perform miracles, the partnership of Fenby and Delius resulted in a late flowering for the composer much to his wife’s delight. She commented to Fenby that “You cannot know what it means to me to see Fred full of his music again.” After years of his music being locked within, Delius was once more free to compose…

Shelf lives exhibition

Marion Margaret Scott, musicologist and composer, acquired a collection of Haydn materials during the course of her research. The collection is of particular interest both in its diversity (artefacts as well as early printed Haydn editions) as in the way in which it is documented by catalogues illustrating how Scott’s collecting and research was closely integrated. Marion Scott was very active in the domain of women and music and from a gender point of view the collection is also quite exceptional. An exhibition case devoted to Scott’s Haydn Collection is part of the Shelf Lives exhibition.

F. T. Arnold bookplate

For the Pendlebury Library display (to be found near the Issue Desk), we have focused on Richard Pendlebury, mathematician, musician and mountaineer, whose music collection would eventually form the basis of the Music Faculty library. More about the relation between Richard Pendlebury and the Pendlebury Library of Music is available in CULIB.

We will be blogging about all of these and about the many music collectors that didn’t make it into the exhibition cases – we really were spoilt for choice. For those interested in more than the music collectors, the Special Collections Blog will be introducing the many other collectors that are represented in Cambridge Library Collections.

AP

Screenshot: Oxford Music Online, advanced search, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/ (subscription-access only)

This is a truly personal collection of composers; indeed it is a list just of C20 and C21 composers! However, it is also a kind of virtual signposting: this blog might also pay tribute to some of the men and women whom we could celebrate in 2012.

My selection is based on the 91 names listed at http://www.classical-composers.org/search/year0 (this compares to 1431 names resulting from searching Oxford Music Online for composers born in 1912 only!), and some further more specific searches on OMO. If you have never conducted an advanced search on OMO, the following screenshot above, shows you how to do it.

National Libraries Day, 4 February 2012, http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk/

If this is too modern for you, how about: Claude Debussy (22 August 1862; 150 years) or indeed John Bull (1562; 450 years)? Whatever you do in 2012, and especially if you have already given up on New Year’s resolutions: make it a musical year, oh and, of course, use libraries. You don’t have to do this on National Libraries Day (4th February 2012), but it might be enjoyable to do so.

CG

Concert of Ancient Music programmes for 1805. MR455.d.01.21

The Concert of Ancient Music was founded in 1776 by the Earl of Sandwich and others of the nobility to promote performances of works by older masters, banning the performance of anything less than 20 years old. This meant plenty of Handel plus some Corelli, Gluck and Purcell as seasoning. None of that frivolous modernist Haydn for them! George III bestowed his patronage on the Concert in 1785 and in 1804 they moved their performance headquarters to Hanover Square where they remained until their demise in 1848. Their programmes will be explored in a later post as the UL has a long run in its collections.

The best-known organisation to appear at the Hanover Square rooms was the Philharmonic Society who used it as their principal venue from 1833 to 1869 when they moved to St. James’s Hall. Founded in 1813, the Society (now of course the Royal Philharmonic Society) was keen to promote the best of (then) modern music and its serious appreciation by the public. The years at Hanover Square saw many famous musicians work with the Philharmonic including Mendelssohn, who rapidly became a favourite and who introduced the great violinist Joseph Joachim to London audiences, Louis Spohr who conducted the first Royal Command performance in 1843 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and Michael Costa who became their first-ever permanent conductor.

Niccolo Paganini

In fact, anyone who was anyone in the musical world gave performances at the Hanover Square rooms. In May 1834 Paganini performed on both violin and viola, introducing his Sonata per la grand viola.

“Signor Paganini…begs…to announce that his last concert but one will take place this evening, May 23, on which occasion he will have the honour of performing several of his most favourite pieces, and also on the grand viola.” (The Times advertisement 23rd May 1834).

Liszt appeared on consecutive evenings (May 14 and 15) in 1840 firstly at Mr. Lidel’s Grand Soirée Musicale (the ‘cellist Joseph Lidel) and the next day at one of Cramer’s concerts where he played Weber’s Konzertstück op.79 and his own Grand galop chromatique. The orchestra would “be on the grandest scale” (The Times advertisement 14 May 1840). Also appearing on both occasions was our old friend John Orlando Parry – apparently omnipresent on the London concert stage.

Berlioz’s concert of his own music there on 29th June 1848 was a resounding success and included Harold in Italy and the March Hongroise from “Faust”. The full effect of the march was somewhat less than it could have been as the owners of the Rooms refused to allow him to use the drums and cymbals. John Parry? Yes, he was there but this time in the audience.

“The most interesting and engrossing of event of the present musical season happened yesterday, at the Hanover-Square Rooms, where the celebrated Hector Berlioz held his second concert since his sojourn in this country. All musical London was present. An orchestra of more than 100 performers, picked from the chosen of our metropolitan executants…, showed plainly that there was to be no trifling…” (The Times, 30th June 1848)

Berlioz. Marche Hongroise from "Faust" arr. for piano duet. Cramer. (Mus.2.1)

During the nineteenth century, the Hanover Square Rooms went through two sets of refurbishment: the first back in 1804 when the stage was moved to the opposite end of the hall and three Royal boxes constructed where the stage had been, and the second in 1861 when the then new owner, the music publisher Robert Cocks, redecorated and replaced the lighting and seating to create a much more comfortable auditorium.

Sadly, only a matter of 14 years later, the Rooms were converted into a club bringing to an end a remarkable era in London’s concert life.

Coming next in this series: The Pantheon.

SW

Jelly Roll Morton, ca. 1917 or 1918, unknown photographer, deemed in public domain

This is the last post on MusiCB3 – for this year. And every time before the end of the year I have the same procedure: I check which composers died 70 years ago (as any music written by a composer is at least protected for 70 years after their death); so this year I look back to 1941.

This might sound like a very macabre and inappropriate thing to do. After all, isn’t Christmas about rejoicing and being happy? Well, let me expand:

I’m preparing myself for 2012 and possible ‘copyright changes’. There are a lot of pitfalls of copyright for sheet music. However, instead of discussing these in an abstract manner, I would like to share my list of top-5 composers who died in 1941. As a disclaimer: it’s still the case that if one of their works was, say, published in or after 1986, this particular edition continues to stay in copyright, even though works published before 1986 by the same composer will be out of copyright after 31^st December 2011.

Top-5 names, with given priority from our UL collection policy for C20 and C21 sheet music in square brackets:

Bridge, Frank (1879-1941) [high]
Kienzl, Wilhelm (1857-1941) [low]
Morton, Jelly Roll (1890-1941)
[low ; link to Oxford Music Online, subscription-based access]
Padrewski, Ignace Jan (1860-1941) [high]
Zilcher, Hermann (1881-1941) [low]

However, beware: there are a high number of further complications! My favourite example is Gershwin’s songs: whereas composer George died in 1937, his brother and lyricist Ira lived until 1983 (he was 86 at the time of his death). This means that the Gershwin brothers’ songs are still in copyright until at least 2053!

Also, I should mention that any unpublished music is – in theory – protected by copyright laws until 2039; so if we were to find a Handel or Mozart manuscript, this could not be published without the consent of the trustees/ancestors of those two gentlemen. Don’t ask me what happens in practice – I’m not a copyright and intellectual property lawyer.

Of course, equally, if you create a new edition of a published work of, say, one of the composers listed above (preferably putting enough effort in to call it a critical or scholarly edition), then this will be protected for 25 years from the year of publication. So, in a way, copyright on any composer ‘never’ truly ends, as specific editions can, are and will be protected. This is the difference between intellectual copyright (i.e. protecting, say, your creative and intellectual work) versus the commercial copyright (i.e. protecting a publisher’s commercial interests). Clear as mud?

To end this post and year, and to conclude on a lighter note: for another way of celebrating the end of yet another year, watch the following slapstick humour of Dinner for One. A lot of TV channels in Germany show this on New Year’s eve. To Mr. Montgomery!

CG

Location of Hanover Square rooms at SE corner of the Square (Richard Horwood's 1819 map)

The Hanover Square Rooms (known at first as the New Assembly Rooms) were built by Giovanni Gallini (1728 – 1895) – or Sir John Gallini as he styled himself – in the garden of No. 4 Hanover Square  which he had purchased in 1773. The building contained a main room which held about 500 people with a platform for the performers at one end and a Royal Box opposite, all decorated in fashionable style (as a comparison, the space was somewhat smaller than the Wigmore Hall). For almost a century this was the London concert venue, and to be seen there, certainly in the early days when music was all the rage, was a must in fashionable society.

The first concert was given on 1st February 1775, organised by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel, one of the most successful concert-promotion partnerships of the late eighteenth century. Performances were advertised in the Public Advertiser (Monday 30th January) and the Morning Chronicle (Saturday 28th January) thus:

“MESS. Bach and Abel take the Liberty to acquaint the Nobility and Gentry Subscribers to their CONCERTS that [details of the next concert] …. The Nobility and Gentry are most humbly desired to order their Coachmen to set them down …at the door in Hanover Street with their Horses Heads towards Grosvenor Square, the Door in the Square being for Ladies [Sedan] Chairs only.”

(Clearly traffic problems were as prevalent in 18th century London as they are today).

1791 arrangement of Haydn's symphony no.92 in G major for pianoforte by Dussek. (UL classmark: Mus.3.72-74)

The Bach-Abel subscription series concerts continued until J. C. Bach’s death in 1782 and in 1785 they were succeeded by the Professional Concerts a subscription series organised by the players themselves and led by Wilhelm Cramer (pre-empting the LSO by some 120 years), which continued until 1793. They became very popular: the programmes were usually 10 – 12 items (typical for the time) presenting a mix of orchestral pieces, concerti, chamber music and vocal items concentrating for the most part on modern repertoire including works by Haydn, Pleyel and Abel.

Probably the best-known Hanover Square concerts of the time were the violinist Johann Peter Salomon’s subscription series in 1791, 1792 and 1794 at which many of Haydn’s ”London” symphonies were given, directed from the harpsichord by the composer. The first series of twelve concerts began (after some delays) on 11 March 1791, and the “New Grand Overture” by Haydn, which began the second half, is most probably symphony no.  92 (H. C. Robbins-Landon reviews the evidence in v.  3 of his Haydn Chronicle and Works: Haydn in England pp.  54 – 55).

Johann Peter Salomon (1745 - 1815)

Concerts continued weekly thereafter for which Salomon charged a five guinea subscription (about £350 today). One can only hope that the “Nobility and Gentry” realised what a very special series they were to experience.  Certainly the Morning Chronicle waxed lyrical with a report of the concert the following day: “…never was there a richer musical treat…Haydn should be an object of homage and even idolatry…His new Grand Overture [the new symphony] was pronounced … to be a most wonderful composition.” Further concert series followed in 1792 and 1794 to great acclaim.

So with the sound of Haydn’s Grand Overture “with the Militaire Movement” [no. 100 in G] ringing in our ears from the final 1794 Salomon concert on 12th May, we will take our leave of Hanover Square until the next time…

SW

‘Of all dead men Handel has had the largest place in my thoughts’, Butler wrote in his notebook in 1882, aged 47. ‘In fact, I should say he and his music have been the central fact in my life ever since I was old enough to know of the existence of either music or life.’

Samuel Butler at the piano. By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge.

During his lifetime Butler published sixteen books, advocated then later attacked Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy, and captured some of the most striking photographic images of the nineteenth century. Through all of this activity Butler was accompanied by Handel, whose works played continually in his mind: ‘All day long – whether I am writing or painting or walking – but always – I have his music in my head, and if I lose sight of it and of him for an hour or two, as of course I sometimes do, this is as much as I do.’

Something of his passion is preserved in the extensive Butler Collection held at St John’s College Library, which includes a significant number of books and volumes of printed music that once comprised Butler’s personal library. Handel of course dominates, and many of the scores are annotated with Butler’s recognisable, impassioned pencil scribbles, which highlight his favourite elements of a work, or identify sections that were left out of a particular performance he had attended.

Novello’s Original Octavos became the staple affordable edition of printed music in Britain from around the mid-nineteenth century, and Butler owned many of these. He also possessed some significantly earlier editions, several of which were presented to him by aunts and friends who appreciated his love of Handel. John Walsh’s engraved scores, some dating to the 1730s, provide nice examples – particularly those bound together and inscribed to Butler from Julian Marshall (1836–1903), the amateur musician and music collector and husband of composer, conductor and Handel biographer Florence Ashton Thomas (1843–1922).

Following his father’s death in 1886, Butler gained the financial independence he needed to dedicate his time to practising and composing music. In collaboration with his friend Henry Festing Jones (1851–1928), Butler wrote the words and music for Narcissus: A Dramatic Cantata, a ‘jeu d’esprit’ charting the fate of a shepherding couple who abandon pastoral pursuits to speculate on the Stock Exchange. George Bernard Shaw, who often championed Butler’s work, wrote in a private letter that the music was invested with ‘a ridiculously complete command of the Handelian manner and technique’.

Samuel Butler’s annotations, in Sonatas or Chamber Aires for a German Flute Violin or Harpsichord: Being the most Celebrated Songs and Ariets Collected out of all the late Operas Compos’d by Mr. Handel (London: I. Walsh [1770?]). By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge.

Gerald Gifford, Honorary Keeper of Music at the Fitzwilliam Museum, has recently made use of the collection in preparing a new Handel edition, due next spring. Plans are underway to celebrate the edition with a performance event at St John’s – which will revive some of Butler’s own keyboard compositions, as well as indulge his love of Handel.

Lots more information about the Samuel Butler Collection at St John’s can be found on the Butler Project website.

Rebecca Watts
Butler Project Associate, St John’s College Library